Justifying the work’s smouldering price Goodrum says the one-off work took three years to conceive and seven months to detail. “It’s a massive amount of work,” he says.
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Its magic is achieved using the traditional 17th century French decorative arts technique marqueterie de paille, or straw marquetry. In his Coburg North studio, Seigneur and an assistant undertook the painstaking process of splitting, flattening and dying thousands of pieces of imported Burgundy rye straw by hand. They then apply each piece individually to the surface of the carbon fibre structure.
“The straw has a natural sheen, like a wax finish,” Seigneur explains. “There is no varnish on it.”
Alternating patterns and grain direction enhance the material’s natural dynamism. “Because the straw is so iridescent when you move it, it dances even more,” adds Goodrum.
Seigneur learnt his straw marquetry skills by the side of Lison de Caunes, granddaughter of renowned Art Deco designer Andre Groult who ushered in a resurgence of the craft in the 1930s. Indeed, the cabinet’s curvaceous forms allude to the luxe period.
Arguably, however, the breakthrough in the A&A cabinetry’s complex interior geometries occurred with a commission from another luxe influence, Louis Vuitton. To celebrate the premium French brand’s 200th anniversary the company commissioned 200 international designers to redesign a piece of luggage.
A&A’s Cocotte en Paille or Chatterbox in Straw recalls the grand days of sea travel with passenger steamer trunks. Delighting in the trunk’s hidden drawers and secret compartments, the designers doubled down on the surprise factor, evoking memories of the children’s paper-folding game of chatterbox.
“Arthur offers the straw marquetry expertise, then I bring the form and the colour and the pattern,” says Goodrum. “There’s still to-ing and fro-ing, but I love playing with geometry, cutting things and putting them back together. The whole thing is almost like a trick,” says Goodrum. “We love tricks. Play, I guess, is a thing. That idea that you thought it was this, but it’s something else.”
For Ewan McEoin, senior curator of design at the NGV, the implications of A&A’s collectible design are exciting. “Not only are we seeing more art galleries showing design, a designer can sustain themselves as a designer and not work in a studio being paid to just design for someone.”
Rebelling against the “demand that objects be made faster and in multitude” A&A’s time intensive collaborations embody the notion of the heirloom object – a belief in sustainability through quality and a desire to pass the object on as a keepsake.
“To develop a whole new process is [more] fascinating than just another shape,” says McEoin.
The Kissing Cabinet is at Tolarno Galleries until June 1 as part of Melbourne Design Week.
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